And that’s the reason why the GOTG movies stick out of the MCU - they work very good on their own without the necessity of watching/knowing the other ‘standard’ MCU superhero movies. I dare you, try to watch Captain America 3: Civil War without knowing the precursor movies. James Gunn is aware of that. Is it a coincidence that the third GOTG movie is supposed to take place approximately eight years after the Infinity War? Guess not - Gunn wants to keep the GOTG to be detached to a certain point of view within the MCU.
Let’s examine this shall we?
I dare you, try to watch Captain America 3: Civil War without knowing the precursor movies.
Let’s pay attention to the first half of the title, more specifically the numerical designation. It’s the third Captain America film. Good luck jumping into Return of the King without having seen the first two films. Guardians of the Galaxy is the first film in its franchise, of course anyone can jump right into it. The first entry of any of the MCU’s various series are easy to jump into. You don’t need to know anything about the other MCU films before jumping into Doctor Strange or Ant-Man either. How much is a viewer going to get out of GOTG Vol. 2 without seeing the first?
Is it a coincidence that the third GOTG movie is supposed to take place approximately eight years after the Infinity War? Guess not - Gunn wants to keep the GOTG to be detached to a certain point of view within the MCU.
GOTG Vol. 2 is set around six months after the first film which puts it around the year 2012. GOTG Vol. 3 is set to release in 2020, eight years after the original film was released. Both Infinity War films will have been out by this time. If Gunn is trying to avoid the repercussions of his heroes mingling with the greater MCU then why didn’t he set Vol. 3 before Infinity War?